Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - now that's a name that brings back some memories. If you're like me and TMNT was THE cartoon when you were young then it's time for some nostalgia.

In case you slept through the late 80s and early 90s or are just too young (or old) to know who the heck they are; Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is about 4 mutated turtles and a mutated rat by the name of Splinter (they all walk upright like humans and happen to be experts in the various martial arts). When Splinter (the turtles' master and teacher) gets kidnapped, the 4 heroes in a half-shell go on a rescue mission.

   

At the start of the game you have to choose which of the turtles you want to be. Leonardo is the leader of the gang; Raphael is the aggressive and cocky one; Donatello is the smart one and last but not least you have Michelangelo who's the prankster and slightly dim one. On your quest to save Splinter and defeat The Shredder (the games arch-bad guy) you visit a series of locations such as sewers, dojos, labs, junkyards and city streets.

Playing as a scrolling fighting game, TMNT's gameplay is extremely simplistic; there's an attack button, a strong attack button and you can jump or throw ninja star. The only combos you can pull off are attack, attack then strong attack. It gets really boring using the same old moves every ten steps. Every level has you walking then attacking a group of enemies and clearing the area before you can then move on to the next zone and attacking some more. And then there's a boss battle at the end of each stage - samey isn't the word. Repetitive isn't a repetitious enough word for TMNT - maybe repetititititititititive would be more accurate. The main story can be played with 2 players co-operatively, and thankfully that does speed up things because there's the same amount of enemies as the solo game. Other two player modes include a Vs. mode which lets you fight each other with characters that can be unlocked by completing the game with certain characters.

   

The graphics are the best thing about the game, the cel shading gives it a real cartoon feel and you can have a lot of stuff going on. The cut-scenes are lifted right from the cartoon so look really good as well. All the voice actors do a reasonable job and the new cartoon theme tune is here to give it the authentic sound.

Overall TMNT is no more than a basic scrolling beat 'em up with a lack of variation that gets boring quickly - despite its looks there's not enough here for the average gamer, although if you have young'uns I think they'll really enjoy the simplicity of it.